Who is THAT kid?

I haven't mentioned dude's soccer skills in quite a while. There's a reason for that. We haven't ventured to the soccer field for the past 2 weeks. There was a mild (well, maybe more like a major) meltdown 3 weeks ago come game time and so we decided to take a couple weeks off to spare the utter embarrassment. Yesterday was his very last game, so we insisted that he would play and insisted that he would love it.

It didn't start well at the homestead. He ran upstairs to his playroom, refusing to get ready. "I no play soccer today Mommy. I stay home and play with da ball machine ok?" We eventually got the shin guards and jersey on and took a crabby kid to the field. When we arrived at soccer central, Dude jumped out of the stroller, ran to his coach, red ball in hand, and practiced like a champ. He kicked when told to kick, ran when told to run, scored goals when told to score goals and didn't once run to me for a "water bottle break." The half hour practice typically goes well, so we were bracing ourselves for the nightmare we call "game time." That's when our soccer star usually loses his star power.

A miracle took place at this point. Dude sat on the sideline with his team mates and told Coach Nate that, "I wanna play soccer wif da kids now coach!" Coach Nate jumped on his enthusiasm, led him to the field and guided him where to run. Dude was laughing, doing his squinty eyed smile, made contact with the ball a few times, which lead him to look over to us with pure glee, and even got a kick out of being knocked out flat on his face by an opponent. We thought for sure that would end the fun, but our kid got up, kept running and continued this wonderful cycle of soccer fun for the half hour game. He didn't ask for peanut butter jelly, he didn't flail his arms when the ball didn't come his way, he didn't run to me for consoling, he didn't jump in the stroller, insisting that it was time to go home and he only picked a few dandelions on the field during game time. I did hear him talking to Coach Nate about baby Delaney a few times while running around the field, but whatever. He was happy. Tim and I took in every single second of this new found soccer joy. We kept looking at each other saying, "Are you seeing this?" Way to round out the season dude. We're oh so proud of you and have a glimmer of hope that soccer 2011 just might be a possibility.

Bring on the H2O

It's pool time friends. Small pools, big pools, sprinklers, hoses...whatever form the water comes in. Dude's gonna have a rockin' summer. Last night we took a family trip to Toys R Us and picked up the latest and greatest pool for our season of summer fun. This giant piece of blue plastic comes complete with a mini slide-just like the one I grew up with! We couldn't resist and I'm glad we didn't. After a trial run this morning, dude is sold. S-O-L-D.

Katie and the twins came to splash with us today. Those little pumpkins are nothin but cuteness. Dude would agree. Who are the random children in the photos below, you might be wondering? Let me tell ya. We had a contractor come to replace a couple windows today and he decided that it would be appropriate to bring his children with him. Without telling us. He went to work and left his 2 kids with me. Awesome. And so I became Gwen's daycare and kept his children occupied for 4 hours. Cute kids, but really?

Good Times with Grandma

The day after my Mom went back to Chi-town, Grandma V graced us with a weekend visit. She chose the perfect time to come. The weather was balmy and ideal for outdoorsy fun. Dude was chipper and up for playing hard with his Grandma. We love Grandma V visits - she thoroughly enjoys just hangin' out and seeing how we live. Walking the neighborhood, meeting neighbor friends, getting doughnuts, grilling out and spending lots of quality time with the duder. He was a sad boy when he woke up and realized that she was gone. He got a pouty face and said, "Grandma went to Cago. That's so sad huh Mommy?" Thanks for a grrrrrrreat visit Grandma V and for spoiling us with love and attention! We miss you already.

Dude's new sprinkler snake contraption is a real hit.

We went river wading at the local park.

Endearing huh? Dude showed off the "rock park" to Grandma. He's noticeably better at navigating through the rocks than last year.

Munchkin head. Preppy little munchkin head.


We threw a whole lotta rocks that morning.

Tim almost ran over this little devil. SHOULD have run over this little devil. Shuttttter.

A Little Boy and his Train Set

When we visit stores with extravagant train table set ups, dude parks it. He's set for as long as I allow him to stay put. And it usually takes bribery of some sort of sugar based product to pry him away. So, for his birthday, Nanna and Pappa hooked him up with his own train set up in our basement. We had the table (courtesy of a neighborhood garage sale) and they provided the tracks. HOURS of fun people. Hours. If you don't know where dude is, look downstairs by his train table. He names his trains, he makes up scenarios of crashes, he names wooden people...he adores this gift of f-u-n. And we so too. Thanks Nanna and Pappa! And special props to the creators of Thomas the Train. Genius. Pure genius.

Yes, that's Dora the Explorer in the orange van. Didn't come with the set.

And this is the face of a little boy scolded for throwing said Thomas the Train cars at Mama's head.

Highs and Lows

Life is fragile. And unpredictable. It just doesn't follow our designated plan most of the time. This past week has been a smack in the face reminder of all of that.

Our family friend, Uncle Ken, passed away after a sudden heart attack on Friday morning. Just like that, his entire family network is mourning and heart broken. He was an incredible man. A young, happy go lucky, helpful, compassionate, fun loving man. Knowing the pain that our friends are in is awful. Just awful. 5 minutes after that call came in, another teary friend called with news that her 30 year old sister's cancer is back. Bad. Not a lot of hope in her diagnosis. Her 2 little ones and husband - what do they do with that news? Next was news that previous small group friends' dad lost his long, painful battle with cancer. It just kept coming this weekend. We were also passed over by our first birth mom potential. At the time, that seemed heart breaking, but at this point we're just counting our blessings.

There was some happy in the past week too....my mom decided to come out to support our friends for the funeral, so we're super blessed with Nanna time this week. The sun was shining all weekend and we roamed greenhouses for hours, choosing plants for our yard. That's happy too. Dude is healthy and super animated these days. He's growing and growing and causes outburst of laughter from us every day. That, my friends, is the happiest. We experienced a little taste of summer bliss last night at a concert in the park with some neighborhood friends. There was a whole lot of happy being surrounded by cherries, cheese, pasta salad, cupcakes, kids dancing in the bright green grass, walking barefoot, music playing in the background and laughing about a whole lotta nothing with friends.

Life is fragile, so I'm reminding myself to just live. Every moment. Stop whining, stop wishing, stop regretting and breathe. Deep, deep breaths.

Here are some pics from our "happy."

Dude in all his "only boy" glory.

They could have danced all night long. Not a care in the world.

Is it only slightly obvious why these preps get along? Khaki shorts, striped shirts, shades. Pretty pathetic huh?

Cousin D has a picture doing the same pose, so dude had to match it.

Hangin' with Holden

There's a new little dude in dude's life. His name is Holden folks and he is pure fun. Dude asks to play with him each and every day as of late. We've had 2 play dates with his mom and him (they live in our neighborhood) and have run into him at the grocery store. Dude thinks that Holden's going to be everywhere we go. Our new little friend is adventurous, which is grrrreat for my non-adventurer. He wants to do everything Holden does, so we're starting to see more monkey like traits. Maybe Holden can convince him that it's okay to have dirt on his hands too! I'll have to report back on that one.

Dude and Holden. Maxin on the park stairs.

That's just my dude in a field.

Holden's smiley little bro, Tristan.

I Heart this Past Weekend

So many reasons to heart this past weekend. I'll bullet point a few:

*Shishkabobs with the Syers and dude giggling non-stop for an hour with Uncle Wes.

*Happy happy happy hour with Eric and Megan, sans kids. 3 hours of intelligent, adult conversation, 8 shareable scrumptious plates and 10 fully loaded beverages cost each couple $35. Shazam!

*Dude's new babysitter, Sarah = love her! Yeah for Cara sending quality Arapahoe students our way.

*Selling 5 of the 6 items we had posted on Craig's list = paid off our new patio furniture.

*Hubby-made sticky buns Mom's day morning. Took me back to my childhood when my mom would have those suckers ready when we got out of bed. Heaven.

*A picture perfect hike (once dude got used to the fact that he did indeed need to walk and not be carried) at Waterton Canyon. We caught butterflies, searched for the canyons very best rocks and sticks and had a tailgate picnic, complete with string cheese and granola bars.

*Watching dude eat a cupcake without getting his hands messy. After 10 minutes he finally caved and ate it as fast as he possibly could.

*2 hours of nail pampering with Maria.

*Home made, romantic steak dinner & wine with my main squeeze.

I went to sleep with a smile last night. Hope you had a heavenly weekend as well. Must admit, I'm kinda depressed that Monday is upon us.

Momma Mias

Isn't she lovely? That's my Momma.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. It's a doozie of a day for this Momma. You can peruse my other literary time sucker for my emotional account of Mom's Day, but for this lighthearted blog, I'll keep it simple. I love my momma dearly. She's the complete Mom package. And then some. And then there's my mother-in-law. I love her dearly too. She's my friend and the most loving example of what a mother-in-law can possibly be. She loves her family like crazy. And as if we needed more love added to this post, I also cherish all my girlies who keep me sane in our day to day mothering madness. What would I do without people to talk to about bowel movements and puke and boogers? Really, what would we all do?

And most importantly, I'm giddy with glee over being a mom to my little mile high dude. My friends, he is my heart (well, Tim shares that with him) and I can barely remember what I did with myself become being coined his momma mia. How fortunate am I? Super fortunate. Super blessed. I thank God for my moms and for giving me the tools to be a mom to my little ball of energy and spunk. I was born to be that little man's mom.

Happy Mother's Day to all my kick bootie Mom followers. Keep fighting the good fight ladies. And to those who long to be moms or have lost precious tiny ones and not so tiny ones, I'm so sorry. So so sorry. I hope and pray that next Mom's Day will bring the joy you've been longing for.

Check out the hawk on my little monkey. It was his crowning jewel for a long period of time.

You dig the yellow chain? My little Mr. T.

Mom-in-law. She's pretty lovely too huh?

The Ugly Truth about Hungry Hippos

No matter how hard I try (and lately I really have been trying), I can NOT beat my 3 year old at Hungry Hippos. 10 games straight....no wins for Momma. I've tried switching hippos, changing hands...nothin. He's a darn good hippo player. We'll leave it at that.

Bits and Pieces from our Week

Our dirty dude. Post soccer game & garage work this morning.

Dude was sitting on the big potty and fell in (not completely in). He got this look of panic and yelled, "Mommy, please don't flush me!"

Twice the other night night, dude came running out of his room like he was being chased by a cheetah. He screamed, exclaiming that there was a dog in his room and the second time it was a huge elephant. We assumed he was just having nightmares, but found out from the "squirrel man" that there was a squirrel trapped directly above dude's room in a metal trap. The thing actually committed suicide from banging around so much. Thus the reason dude thought there were animals in his room. Poor terrified little guy.

Dude wanted dip for his chips at dinner, so I told him to "Ask Daddy nicely and tell him you love him." Here's what Dude heard. "Daddy, can I peese have dip and you're a muffin."

Tim was squeezing ketchup for dude's hamburger and dude giggled, saying "Da ketchup tooter rooter Daddy." Tim looked at me with an apologetic look at said, "You do understand that this is just the beginning of years of fart jokes to come."

Words that dude mispronounces that we love and dread the day he says them correctly.....
Animals = aminals
Sesame Street=Step Step Street
Ham and Cheese Tortilla=Ham Cheese Tia
Raisin Bran=Raisin Branch
Going #2=Going peanuts
Applesauce= Criss Cross Applesauce
Girls=Goyyyyals
Mommy=Momma Mia
The candle on our kitchen table= little fireplace

Soccer game this weekend....we're making progress. Instead of refusing to play the game portion of the hour, he chose to straight up pick up the ball, run it to the goal, set it down and kick it in. Twice. The second time, the goal had already been scored and he decided a second consecutive goal should take place. He was quite proud of himself.

The squirrel man was at our house picking up a dead squirrel and dude says, "Bad Sammy da squirrel! You stop eating our pumpkins!" He must have remembered the giant holes that kept appearing last Fall.

Dad and his little mechanic helper, taking off our snow tires. Dude loves tools that make manly sounds.